Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends⌠Weâre so glad you could attend! Step inside, step inside!
Sprkslfly here with another glimpse into the ever changing (or not�) landscape of vaping devices!!
Todayâs escapade is brought to you by the folks at VooPoo whoâve sent me a Drag 2 to review and offer opinions on. I guarantee you that the fact that this was sent this device âfree of chargeâ wonât color my opinions. (Free? heh. Like 5-6 hours of taking pics, editing them, writing up these little âinsightsâ [coughOPINIONScough] is âfreeâ. pffbt. Nevermind the actual time spent using the thing, and forming hypothesis of whatâs going onâŚanyways, I digress!
Iâll try to limit the opinions until the last portion (for the most part), and do mainly meat and potatoes in the interim.
The Basics:
I received a red swirl Drag 2, that the box refers to as âB Scarletâ.
The battery door (aside from the DISGUSTINGLY HUGE branding) has a fair bit of play, and gets rather annoying. It certainly is a DRAG that they didnât provide another resin panel in place of the one they used for the battery door.
The face appears scratched slightly, but thereâs probably a protective plastic strip covering it. Canât say, as I didnât bother.
A shot of the screen was an after thought, and really, given there is going to be a TON of these slapped all over YouTube, etc as usual⌠But, hereâs the basic SS mode screenie (in an almost zero light room):
Itâs worth noting, that like others have mentioned, the screen is almost useless in daylight.
Youâll notice above though, that it reads 0.17ohms, and thatâs dead on for what my Cylons read. So props #1 for getting that right!
You might also notice that it reads 37w.
Iâm of the opinion (at the moment -again, none of us were given adequate time to truly, and fully evaluate the extent of things IMO) that this is only a firmware issue.
It tracks the impedance during operation well (at least AFA SS goes, and I use 316), but unlike my forum friendsâ reviews praises above who received the Drag Mini, the Drag 2 I received is slow to fire. Like a full second delay from the press of the fire button, to a second and a half slow.
It acts VERY MUCH like another mod that Iâve recently received, and thatâs the GeekVape Nova (which incidentally, uses a very familiar chip that Iâve reported on before). -Review on that coming soon.
At any rate, back to the picsâŚ
The back has a bit of a textured finish to it
And I must say, they used what seems to be a nice 510 pin! Props #2 (Not just judging by the topâŚbut more on that soon!)
They say âDesigned in Californiaâ on the bottom⌠
BTW, itâs my opinion that those vent holes arenât for battery venting, but rather for providing air to get to the ambient temp monitoring portion of the device. Theyâre not located in such a way that theyâd be any use at all in the case of batteries venting. If (God forbid) venting were ever to occur, itâd be better to just drop the damn thing, and more than likely the door would go flying providing more than adequate venting. lol
Polarity is fairly easy to read, and the tension from the terminals thatâs applied to the batteries is quite nice. (Props #3)
Itâs snug enough that itâs going to maintain good electrical transfer, while not being SO damned tight that itâs going to try and shred your battery wraps like others Iâve seen/used in the past.
About the internals
A first glance reveals that theyâve gone with a bit of extra protection against e-liquid for the buttons, A nice touchâŚ
However, I canât quite give it âPropsâ, because, itâs only a âskin deepâ protection.
(Granted, something beats nothingâŚ) But, with the way this is designed/implemented once you start looking closerâŚ
Youâll see that immediately below the fire button is an unprotected gap that would let the e-liquid roll right under the fire button, but not contact the switch (WOOHOO!) and right onto the LCD ribbon and circuit board (well shit 
).
This is the bottom of the 510 that seems to be a very thoughtfully selected piece. Itâs definitely a couple cuts above the pressed in trash that we frequently see from other manufacturers. And itâs very nice secured in place, with quality soldering work to boot.
You can see in the following picture a bit more of what I was referring to about the gap in the âe-liquid safety netâ below the nicely-covered firing switch. As well as a close up of the underside of the 510.
The âsafety netâ is rather an interesting strip.
Part of it seems rubberized, yet the other portions are definitely a plastic.
Below, you might be able to better understand what I meant about there being no pathway for battery venting, as the central part of the battery chassis is a one piece molded unit. (The piece with the white wire leading to the battery connector bar, gets screwed into the main portion of the battery sled AKA the main plastic chassis)
The rubberized plastic insert (what Iâve called the âsafety netâ) is in reality more of a multi-purpose device (in these initial assessments anyways).
The âsafety netâ was actually glued down, so IMO, itâs there more to facilitate a limited defense against liquid. While also making it easier for the assembly folks to get the chassis installed into the outer casing with minimized risk of ripping the switches off. It also serves as a mounting platform for the LCD.
Incidentally, youâll notice that the LCD has no socket, and the ribbon is hard-wired. So, IF you ever have to go into one of these, you may not be as fortunate as I was (because the glue will likely have had a LOT longer to cement itself to the components on the PCB). And then youâll still need to exercise a strong amount of caution in just how much force you apply while trying to separate the âsafety netâ from the PCB. Either way, you risk ripping components (resistors, capacitors, etc) right off the board.
All the âwhitish-greyâ material you see is whatever glue they used to try and insure that getting in isnât easy!
The CPU that handles it all:
(branding has been kindly lasered offâŚbut more on that later!)
Again, I feel fortunate to have gotten as deep into things as I did, because you can see by the amount (and location) of adhesive that they used⌠they really didnât plan for things to be âinspectedâ or serviced.
The circled blue area is the back of the LCD (as it remains housed securely in the âsafety netâ).
Again, should you consider going into one of theseâŚmind the âwiggle roomâ -because there ISNâT MUCH! (due to the short ribbon cable to the LCD)
Final Thoughts
Pros:
- Reads impedance well
- Tracks impedance of SS 316 well
- Appears to be a nice 510
Cons:
- The slow firing is REALLY noticeable. Especially in this day and age where most are firing in the tenths (to hundredths) of a second.
- Wattage reading reads a bit high for whatâs actually delivered (but only a minor discrepancy, and could possibly be resolved in the future by a firmware update I imagine.)
- The battery door has far too much play for my liking, and does not sit securely in place.
Subjective:
- The GIANT EGO of VooPoo blazing their branding as BIG AS FUCKING POSSIBLE is just as huge a turnoff for me. The logo on the Resin panel side is more than adequate, and âtastefully doneâ. The DRAG on the battery panel though is downright ridiculous, and reflects the egoâs of those who market this thing.
Tidbits and asides
While I cannot 100% say what chip theyâre using, I can definitely make an educated guess! This performs almost identical to the GeekVape Nova that I have been testing.
That device uses a NUC220 chip (Yes, the same as in the Alien). And while I hate letting the cat out of the bag early on that⌠It has to be mentioned, because I honestly cannot see this being an independantly designed (read as: proprietary) chipset.
If itâs not a NUC220, itâs possibly a Holtek, or some other 3rd party chip.
Itâs definitely NOT a ST Microelectronics though, because that thing fires faster than shit!
I have had to revise my opinion recently (admitted in private circles) on the NUC220, because the silicon has finally reached a respectable revision, with firmware to match (at least on the Nova). Itâs not âearth-shatteringâ by any means⌠but itâs come A LONG WAY from the crap-tastic implementations Iâve seen previously. But more on that in another review.
Bottom Line
This is an average performing device, that does decent TC in SS.
Basically, it meets what Iâd consider to be minimum standards.
Granted, thereâs still a LOT that donât.
While it does have itâs quirks (wattage a bit off, battery door play), they have a mod that delivers steady output, and has what seems to be good efficiency. I canât say for sure, since I havenât had it long enough to go through enough cycles.
Itâs too slow to fire to command a premium IMO. But if I had to set a âreasonable valueâ on it, Iâs say somewhere about $60 as a standalone mod. Thatâs primarily due to the âresinâ markup IMO, as that seems to add a bit to most mods. If there were no fancy resin froo-froo finishâŚIâd say, you can still buy a Smoant Cylon for less, and itâs going to be a FAR BETTER performer in every technical respect. But it wonât have the customizable message/font fluff thatâs apparently part of the software package⌠
Personally, before ANYONE has the right to get an ego the size of Voopâs, theyâd better deliver on performance first. You donât see DNA or YiHi getting this cocky.
Safe to say Iâll never review another VooPoo again (Iâd wager). But there you have it.
Thanks for your time,
Sprks
), my guess is that this will work for the Drag 2 as well⌠Not that you will ever need to do so 
